Online Dating Scams, Canadian Edition

Victim swindled out of almost 500K Canadian dollars

Romance scams remain a (growing) international problem. I am quoted in this CBC News story about a Calgary woman who lost almost 500K Canadian dollars:

Legal expert Irina Manta says people could try more exclusive and expensive online dating services to receive a better vetting process.

But in the meantime, she says, people need to stop blaming the victim. 

Manta is a law professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., and the founding director of its Center for Intellectual Property Law. 

She says it's tough to put yourself in someone else's shoes. She says sometimes people are down on their luck through no fault of their own. And sometimes, she says, there can be rational reasons why people brush away red flags.

In these cases, she says, it might be a limited dating pool.

"If there are not a lot of awesome people that might want to be in a partnership with you, there's a chance this is not a good person. But maybe there is a chance this is a good person. You're going to sort of keep going for as long as possible," said Manta.